What Will Happen to House Jan 6 Committee After New Congress Starts to Work?
The US Capitol in Washington, DC, on February 8, 2022.
Oleg BurunovThe January 6 Select Committee’s final report and other materials produced by the panel are currently being transmitted to the National Archives and Records Administration, where they are due to be preserved for at least half a century. With the new Republican-dominated Congress set to hold its first session later on Tuesday, the question arises on what will now happen to the House January 6 Select Committee’s work. Let’s take a look.
Expired Yet Accessible
The committee investigating the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot expires on January 3 with the conclusion of the 117th Congress.Even so, the panel’s work will remain accessible to the public given that the Government Publishing Office had created an online repository to house what the committee produced.
WorldPelosi Reveals Select Committee Will Be Created to Investigate Capitol Riot25 June 2021, 01:06 GMTThe website currently features the committee’s final report, a spate of video exhibits and a detailed timeline of how the violence unfolded at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.The repository is expected to include all of the records the committee has made public and some material that has not yet been publicly released, including documents that may have been referenced in footnotes in the panel’s final report.
No Protection for Anonymous Witnesses
The committee has warned the White House that it cannot ensure that the identity of personnel who cooperated with its probe on the condition of anonymity will remain protected once the panel is dissolved on Tuesday.The committee previously pledged it “would do its utmost to protect the identity” of certain witnesses if the White House allowed them to sit for an interview.Now, however, the panel admitted it “cannot ensure enforcement of the commitment to maintain the confidentiality of the identity of the witnesses” because it will no longer exercise control over interview transcripts after it is dissolved, according to the panel’s letter to Richard Sauber, special counsel for President Biden.“Pursuant to long-standing House rules, the official records of the Committee will be archived and pass into the control of the National Archives,” the letter reads, stressing that the committee shares “concern for the safety, security, and reputations of our witnesses.”The committee has already started transmitting materials to the National Archives and Records Administration while releasing dozens of interview transcripts publicly. In some cases, the panel redacted the names of witnesses in transcripts made available for public review.
Republicans Seeking to Retain Jan 6 CCommitteeDocs
In the meantime, Republicans are trying to pass a new House rule to block materials compiled by the panel from immediately going to the National Archives, where they could be locked away for up to 50 years.The proposed rules package the new Congress will vote on later on Tuesday orders that any record created by the panel should instead be sent to the House Committee on House Administration by January 17. The new rule also orders the National Archives to return any material it has already received.
AmericasHouse Jan. 6 Panel Releases Final Report on Capitol Riot Findings23 December 2022, 03:09 GMTIn November, House minority leader Kevin McCarthy, GOP’s nominee for House speaker, sent a letter to January 6 Committee Chair Bennie Thompson, demanding the preservation of “all records collected and transcripts of testimony taken during your investigation.”“The official Congressional Records do not belong to you or any member, but to the American people, and they are owed all of the information you gathered — not merely the information that comports with your political agenda,” the letter pointed out.The House Select Committee’s probe into the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot ended with a criminal referral for Donald Trump and a final report claiming that the 45th US president intentionally misled and provoked the mob as part of an effort to stay in power after losing the 2020 election, allegations that the ex-POTUS vehemently rejected.On January 6, 2021, a crowd, including Trump supporters, breached the US Capitol in Washington, DC, in a failed effort to prevent Congress from certifying the Electoral College votes in favor of Democrat Joe Biden, in a riot that claimed the lives of five people.
